Present
My main learning point has to be the process within my project. It brought myself to a professional way of dealing with a design process which can be used with every new design process. Also I started to give better boundaries towards all the extra activities I do. My main priority was finishing my bachelor and the rest should be extra. Telling people this and setting clear boundaries helped to remain a better overview of everything that was going on. The best thing is, that it also makes it clear for other people andthey don’t see it as a bad thing. I always thought that saying no to someone, was an unrespectful thing to do. But they are asking you for a favour, which means you have every right to say no if you already have your hands full. Setting these boundaries helped to have a better process within my project. The electives were both full of new theory and skills and were part of the two best electives I had in the entire study because of the amount of new things I learned. They were the missing links in my total competency development, which now reached depth on all levels. In the extracurricular activities that I did, I tried to act more professional and step it up a notch. In this way I can already try different ways of a professional approach towards others.
Which I’m proud of this semester is the publication of the article of which I’m co-author and the exposition of the company Couldbee on the DDW. It will help me to gain more exposure as a multi-disciplinary designer.
Competencies
Self-directed & Continuous Learning
I learn skills when I need them and see them as a challenge. Without a clear value to learn a new skill, it is much harder to learn it. In order to create a holistic skill set, I chose elective that are completely on the opposite of what I’m used to. For example the assignment Intercultural Awareness was way out of my comfort zone. Everything is interesting as long as you had to time to dive into the subject. Also with the assignment this turned out to be true. I like to challenge myself in this way, deliberately picking contexts were I know nothing about. I do many activities besides the study so I can learn how to act in the real world. I’m good at emphasising with people and can read body language well, but I still have to improve on my communication towards others.
Design and Research Processes
This competency was my weak point last semester within my project, but I’ve managed to turn it into a strong point. The project started out explorative, from the broadest sense of the design brief and quickly narrowing it down to a specific problem. After that I used an expert and user based iterative design process where every time one assumption was validated. It made the process very clear towards myself and others. Never before the use of academic papers helped so much in the process. Instead of trying to user test everything, I was able to grasped papers as an validation for my assumptions. The information gathering went quickly by having close contact to experts. Instead of in the middle of the process, trying to reach potential users and experts, you should already from the beginning on make these contacts and include them in the process.
Teamwork and Communication
Communication had a high priority this semester. In the professional communication report you can read more on how I improved my way of communicating. Still I have many points to work only mainly in managing expectations, better communicate my own opinion and be quiet when someone is giving me feedback. It is not that I can’t do them, but I have to be aware that these are my weak points. In teams I’m very adapting and take the role of the person that the team misses. This however points my own interests aside, so I should try to myself more in all these groups.
The project was quite a challenge in the way of communication. They have to most difficult patients in the field of forensic psychiatry, so I had to be confident. The interviews with the patients went very well and even had a laugh with everyone. There feedback was valuable for my project and the patients also felt like being valuable. The project required multiple different stakeholders, that I was able to use throughout the project. Still I have to keep in mind to inform them also about the project, so I will give a presentation about the project on the institution.
Creativity and Aesthetics
For the process of the project, I used some creative techniques. It had to do with the expert based design process that guided the process. I did however had to look per experts or user how to use the meeting. In a more earlier stage it required a more brainstorm like setting. I told them that they had to think about a world where everything is possible and in that world what they would like to see. In this way I am open to all the suggesting having more creative ideas also from experts. Using a co-reflect sessions helped in the middle of the process were already a concept was made, but still there creativity and in depth solution weren’t neglected. Having these experts around early on in the process broadened my view on what already was there and could be improved.
In the project we had multiple movement analysis lectures and workshops. Here I really explored my body more and a scientific way to document these movements. It helped to better determine the place of the device on the body. Concerning the sense, I zoomed in this project on the skin. Using vibration as a way of feedback instead of visually was a challenge. It required using intuitive interactions from the product to the user. In the assignment making sense of sensors, I also learned more how we can measure these senses. The watch itself had to be programmed with behaviour. For this I made a small vibration box that I asked multiple people to test. After this testing session, it turned out I could have much more human like behaviour like breathing. I explored how this could be achieved and in the user test it was also now perceived as an extra sense of the body. Zooming in on the product to user interaction helped to better understand the behaviour of a product. In the future I want to research these interaction more.
Technology and Realization
The new knowledge I learned at the assignment “Making sense of Sensors” was incredibly valuable. I learned how to analyse data and by this validate if what you are measuring is what you want to measure. Using Mathlab I could better understand data better. It was already used within my project to validate my own made sensor. Without it I would have use a of-the-self sensor that wouldn’t work in the first place, were I didn’t know why. I really have the feeling I expanded my knowledge on electronics by understanding the basic of all the common components. Normally, you would just put them there because some tutorial told you to. But know I really had to play around with them and understand there function with the circuit. Optimizing my design to make it as small as possible also brought some new challenge with batteries and small components. Of course these techniques help to create more complex interactive prototypes faster in the future. Next step would be to make my own PCB.
User and Society
The assignment “Intercultural Awareness” was the main learning on this competency area. I did already had a lot of knowledge about emphasising with users, but I was not intercultural aware. The assignment helped me to gain insights in different cultures and be more open also towards people in groups. You can’t judge a book by its cover and it is good to really tell your background a bit in the beginning of a group. It helped to have a very good atmosphere in the group, having thrust in each other. This way of working I would like to use more often.
Within the project, I had to adopt my way of interviewing a lot of times. From super experienced professors to patients with a low intelligence level, all these inputs are equally valuable if you talk with them in the right way. The context within society of the project was important in this case. I had to be aware of the privacy of the patients and their requirements of the product. For example, data collection of the watch would be really interesting for research purposes, but the user wouldn’t want to use the product. These kind of decisions were made based on an user perspective. Having a user centred design helped to have a clear vision and make design decisions easier. Picking such a detailed target group helps within future process to keep focus and don’t lose track.
Business and Entrepreneurship
Mainly in my extra curriculum activities, this competency area is developed. Now launching the Macaron House, really needs understanding of the current market and demands. We needed to develop a strategy to create brand awareness. In the future I’m curious where this will lead. Now I will focus on making a system, so we can have more people that represent our macarons and sell them to companies.
The Dutch Juggling Championships had a descending line in the past, both in quality and the amount of participants. It required a new vision for the organisation which had to be communicated towards the participants. The participants of the competitions really valued the new system used, where they also received feedback for next year. We had over 180 people that weekend, being one of the most successful editions of the conventions 10 year history.
Although I cannot reflect upon it now, I’m trying to see where my project Temper can be useful. I will contact business to see its potential and maybe even bring it on the market as a add on to an existing product.
For the EJC, we have to keep our audience exited. In team media we are responsible for the communication towards the current jugglers, but more importantly, think about promotion to as we call them non-jugglers. Bounding together with local businesses, we had much more reach towards a new audience that where local.
Math, Data and Computing
Within my project, I used Solidworks to create a better understanding how I was going to make my prototype. From the 3D files I could create CDC files with could be to drill out the outer shell of the product. I thought about how I could easily open up the prototype for the replacement of batteries.
In the assignment we learned how to make sense of the sometimes messy data. Using mathlab we could better understand the data and use that again to program our microcontroller. In this way, you will receive the desired data right away. The exact same thing I had to do for my project, to validate my own sensor and other sensor systems. Within the research papers, that were written by electoral engineer professors. It took quite some knowledge to comprehend these papers and making them valuable for my own project.
Reflection PDP Goals
#1 Implementing feedback
The first PDP goals was to use feedback better within my design process, contacting at least 3 experts with different backgrounds and views on the project. It however became the main guideline of the project itself. Almost 3 times a week I received and asked for feedback on the project. Sitting behind your desk by yourself can lead to weird ideas that are quickly turned around when asking for feedback. It help to not take the wrong path and follow it for too long. The goal was to talk to at least 3 experts in the conceptual stage of the project. I however talked to over 10 different experts throughout the whole process, since their feedback is always valuable. Validating every assumption using three different perspective is the prove of this use of feedback and can be read in the report.
2# Professional communication
Trying to see the bigger picture in this, I see three elements that could be approved. I should have an own opinion more, instead of agreeing with what the group wants. I should be better and keeping my mouth shut when receiving feedback. Reflection upon it is something that I have to do afterwards. If I want to talk about it more, I should explain that this is how I perceived it. Within groups I should handle the expectations better that people have from me. This is already a point that has been improved but I could be more clear in my communication about the status of certain tasks I do. Improving these elements, help to have a more professional way of working towards other people. More detailed feedback from different people that I asked feedback can be read in the Professional Communication feedback report.
3# Evidence
This goal was not something that could be worked on. I just had to make sure I documented my feedback better. For the project process, I made notes during meetings and reflection afterwards that came in handy for the report. This weekly process however is now based on assumption validation. So the goals was the same, only the way it was worked out different.
4# Technology & Realization
Working on my technology and realization competency I picked the assignment “Making sense of sensors”. Unfortunately I didn’t received qualitative feedback, but my process was only reflected with an mark which was an 8 in the end. In my project report, you can read how I used this new knowledge right away creating and validating my own sensor. More about what I learned from this assignment can be read on the “Making sense of sensors” page.
